The Unsearchable Riches Of Christ
[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]
Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss
on Lord’s Day Morning, 22nd September, 2019
Text: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Ephesians 3, verse 8
The Apostle Paul was writing from the city of Rome, where he had been taken a prisoner. It was a very strange but a clear connection that he was found to be a prisoner with an Ephesian. When Paul had come to Jerusalem (he knew in his heart that there was great trouble awaiting him), he took into the temple a man called Trophimus. You can read of this is the Acts of the Apostles. Trophimus was an Ephesian, and the Jews accused Paul of taking him into that part of Temple that only belonged to the Jews. The Gentiles were not allowed to pass through it. This was erroneous; Paul had not done that but was accused of it. In the tumult that followed, Paul was arrested and eventually brought to Rome where he is now writing from. There he had memories of both Ephesus, and the Ephesians.
But, writing from Rome, we do not find Paul complaining about the events that brought him there, nor complaining that the Lord had been unjust in bringing him there. In fact, he said in another place that he prized the chain that held him to the Roman soldier who brought him to Rome. He saw it as a token of the Lord’s goodness and mercy towards him. That chain that was bringing him to do the Lord’s will. He looked on it not as man would look on it, naturally speaking, as something to be ashamed of. No. He bore that chain for Christ’s sake. And, every child of God, dear friends, has the same chain in another way. They are bound to God by a chain, not only of sovereign grace, but of sovereign providence, to bring them into the will and the way which God has for them.
Well, Paul was bound by this chain. As he sits in the cell in Rome and thinks of those believing Ephesians; those whom he loved for Christ’s sake, he was moved by the Holy Spirit in the first two chapters to lay the foundation of sovereign grace. In the second chapter he shows the experience of it, beginning: “And you hath He quickened.” Then, in this chapter and in this verse in particular, he speaks of his own authority in proclaiming such a gospel which is spoken of here, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Those “unsearchable riches,” friends, make amends for every pain, every humiliation and every trial that Paul was enduring. So they will for you, child of God, this Sabbath morning. Whatever trouble or trial may affect your poor heart or life, one shower, from this blessed cloud of the fulness of Christ will change your captivity in a moment, and you will bless God for it.
I want to bring before you three things this morning out of our text which may guide us in our meditation. First of all: the preacher. Paul describes himself as: “less than the least of all saints.” Unless you should say: ‘Well, I am not called to preach; I am called to sit in a pew,’ remember, none of us know what the Lord’s will may be as the future unfolds. But, if it is the case that you sit in a pew for the rest of your days, listening rather than preaching, the same is true of the hearer as well as the preacher. Friends, the gospel will mean nothing to you unless you become “less than the least of all saints.” In other words, humility makes the way for the gospel to be of benefit to us. Think of the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee, you will remember, was full of his own works and goodness, so he thought. Not an ounce; not an atom of his so-called humility in his prayer! But look at the poor publican; hiding himself away from the sight of others, beating upon his breast and crying: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He was “less than the least of all saints.” He felt it. And he was the one the Lord heard. Paul felt himself to be “less than the least of all saints.” We will come back to that in a moment.
The second thing we must consider is to whom Paul was to be sent. Here is another point of providence, not just for preachers, although it certainly was so for Paul, and is so for you and for me. Our providences are ordained by God. God was sending Paul to various places to preach His Word. Sometimes He shut a door, as He did in Bithynia and even Asia at one point; that Paul might go to Macedonia where the Lord had a great work for him to do. God is a God of providence, and it ill-behoves you or me to put any providence down to a second cause. In other words, to explain it away. ‘If this had not happened, then it would not be as it is.’ Friends, who is in control? Who is handling your providences? Who is handling your life, child of God? “My times are in thy hand,” says David. And Paul felt those times that had brought him to a prison cell were in the Lord’s hands. From that prison cell he had to proclaim this glorious Truth. Paul had to learn that God would send him where He would. And you and I, dear friends, are in the Lord’s hand in that respect. We are clay in “the hands of the Potter.” We should always be asking, as Paul did in his first prayer (and it was not the last time he prayed it, either): “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” ‘Not what others want me to do or think I should or should not do; not what my poor, carnal mind and natural man would want me to do. May all that be laid on the altar; “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” And, when the Lord reveals that He will give you grace to walk in it.” He will say: “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly.” There is that word again; “humbly” with thy God?” So, the second thing we have to consider is those to whom Paul was sent to preach. They are called the Gentiles.
The third thing (and this third point could fill hundreds, thousands of sermons if God gave the grace so to do); what was Paul to preach? About himself? ‘No,’ he says, “we preach not ourselves.” Was he to occupy the pulpit by telling people things just to entertain their minds? No. He was to preach the unsearchable, fathomless, riches of Christ. That is the third thing before us, this morning. The preacher, to whom he is sent and what he is to preach: all in God’s hand. And, whoever stands in this pulpit, be it me, your unworthy pastor, or any other of God’s servants, it is the same Truth that I am setting before you this morning.
First of all then, the preacher. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints.” When Paul was speaking about sinners, he said something very different: “Sinners; of whom I am chief.” When he was comparing himself to the fallen race of Adam, he did not look down on any one of them. He did not say: “I am holier than thou.” He said: ‘I am the chief of them all.’ That is what he felt. He felt that because he had come face to face with the holiness of God. And ‘the more God’s glory strikes our eye, the humbler we shall lie.’ That is what is lacking in the Church of God today; we have lost a sense of God’s holiness. We are too casual, and we are too familiar. We gloss over the fact that God is a holy God. “Our God is a consuming fire.” Our God hates sin, and our God will have sin dealt with, for the honour of His great name. He is our Judge. Our eternal destiny hangs in His hand. It is He who will say ‘Come’ or ‘depart’ in that solemn moment when our lives shall end. Do you believe it, sinner, or are you just drifting through this life as if there is no eternity? Do you say: ‘If there is an eternity, I will leave it to think about at some stage, but not now. I am too intent on my career, on my business, on my family and this, that and the other. There are many things I want to do before I think about eternity.’?
Oh, sinner! Remember what the Lord said to that man who had been greatly blessed in providence. He wanted to pull down his barns and build greater, and then take his ease and eat, drink and be merry and have, as it were, a retirement of ease and comfort. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?” Just a side thought here, dear friends: with all the providential goodness that God had given him, he should have been using it to God’s honour and glory while he was yet alive. But, when all was said and done, he had to leave it. If you take a newspaper like The Times or The Telegraph, there is a section which tells you of the money that has been left by this man and that man. Sometimes great sums of money have been left; over a million pounds, or more. But they left it. They could not take a penny of it beyond the grave. And nor can you and nor can I. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?” Lay it to heart, dear friends. Are you living for time or for eternity? Are you living as if you must stand before this great God of all ’ere long; perhaps ’ere another Sabbath dawns?
“How stands the case, my soul, with thee?
For heaven are thy credentials clear?
Is Jesus’ blood thy only plea?
Is He thy great forerunner there?”
J. Kent
Let us come back to Paul’s character. “Less than the least of all saints.” What is a saint? I understand that the Roman Catholic Church at this moment is trying to canonize a man called Cardinal Newman. He was a man that went from the Church of England to the Church of Rome in his day; the same day as J.C. Philpot was going in the other direction, coming amongst our people. Now they are trying to make Cardinal Newman into a saint. Friends, no man can make a saint. No pastor can make a saint. He cannot make one of himself, either. A saint is one who has been called by God’s grace; one who has been through that wicket-gate we read of in Ephesians 2: “You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” He has been separated and is being separated from what he is by nature. He is called to be separate from this world, and he is called to go forth to Christ “without the camp.” That means outside the camp of this world and all that it means; “bearing His reproach.” Come back to the fool I have just spoken of, who did not know this truth: “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” A saint is a man who is passing through this time like a man in a tent. He puts his tent down for a few days, then on he goes. He does not put his roots down. He has been uprooted from this world. He has a better country to go to. “Ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” Thus, he holds the world with a loose hand. Yes, he must be in it. He does not need to go to a monastery or a convent to be a saint. No, dear friends, it is God alone who can make a saint; a sanctified one.
But look at the word ‘saint’ in another sense. Look how it is spelt; even you, younger ones could spell it for me if I asked you. S-A-I-N-T. Take the letters S-I-N: sin. Then take the other two letters: A-T: atonement. Now, a saint is a sinner who has proved the value of the atonement. You say: ‘What is the atonement? It’s a long word, isn’t it? AT-ONE-MENT. It is a sinner who has been brought nigh to God. How? We read of it in Ephesians 2: “Made nigh by the blood of Christ.” The dying of Christ has broken down that middle wall of partition between you, a wretched sinner and this holy God. Christ has paid it all.
“Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.”
F. Crosby
That, dear friend, is what a saint is. He has proved the power of the atonement. He has felt the power of the blood of Christ in his heart. It softened him, melted him and cleansed him. You say: ‘But we fall into sin again!’ I know, I know it! I know it! But it does not undo what that precious moment did when you first felt the dropping in of the precious blood of Christ that cleansed your conscience. In that day there was nothing between you and your God. Your sins were gone! Yes, we need fresh application, I know. Hasten to that blood every day.
“Daily I’d repent of sin,
Daily wash in Calvary’s blood.”
R. Burnham
But, friends, do you? Do I? That is the point. A saint is one who has been to the foot of the cross. He has sheltered beneath the blood of Christ. He has pleaded all that is in it; the merit of it, the righteousness of it, the life in it, the power in it, the forgiveness in it and the mercy in it. He says:
That is a saint.
“Give me Christ, or else I die.”
And, strangely enough, it may surprise you, that there is no one who feels themselves to be as great a sinner than a saint feels to be. That is the difference between a man-made saint and a God-made saint. A true saint knows so much of what he is by nature; so much of his vulnerability to the world, the flesh and the devil that he has to groan. And he does: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He has to hasten daily to the foot of the cross and plead the blood that atones for sin. That is a saint.
How many saints are there here this morning in Old Baptist Chapel? You say: ‘We have got a Church roll.’ We do have a Church roll. But friends, either your name or my name on the Church roll does not mean you are a saint. We hope it is so, but it is not for me to say whether it is so, or not. All I am saying to you is that it is not to do with the Church roll. It is to do with this: have you proved the power of the atonement? That is the point. Application; a personal knowledge of the death of Christ. Paul knew that. He was a saint in that respect. He says, writing to the Galatians, that God had “separated me from my mother’s womb.” This was in two ways. One, literally: God gave him birth. But he had been separated from another womb. He had been brought up in the Old Testament dispensation and had been nurtured well in that womb. He thought he was on the way to heaven with his seven ‘ships’ that you read of in Philippians 3. But, when Christ met with him and he met with Christ, all those ships suffered shipwreck. He fled to the righteousness of Christ, and there sheltered beneath it. From that moment on, he knew what it was to be a sinner saved by grace. That is what a saint is. Looking round on the saints, he knows they have their faults (and they have), but, when all is said and done, he says: ‘When I know my faults, you show me the least saint. I am less than that one.’ And, while you and I are in that spirit, we are no harm to anybody. But, once we leave that lowest spot, oh, what harm pride can do! Pride is a terrible thing. It wrecks and has wrecked Churches, families, nations and businesses. Terrible thing, pride! Good Joseph Hart was quite right when he said there is one place where pride dare not intrude: Gethsemane. If it dared to intrude there, it would soon be drowned in blood.
“Thy garden is the place
Where pride cannot intrude;
For should it dare to enter there,
’Twould soon be drowned in blood.
If you really saw, if you are a saint, what your sins cost the Saviour, you would say: “Lord, I am surely the chief of sinners, and “less than the least of all saints.”
So, here is the preacher; the one God had ordained in this respect to proclaim this truth. He speaks of a grace: “this grace given.” That was not the grace that saved him and made him a saint. It was a special grace given to make him a preacher; an apostle of Jesus Christ. There is a distinction. There is the grace that saves that he speaks of in chapter 2, but then this grace that was given to him that he should be the Lord’s messenger. “And no man taketh this honour unto himself.” We do not want man-made preachers. I say that tremblingly. What am I doing in this pulpit? We want God-sent preachers. Those are the ones God will use. But here is Paul. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given.”
The second point is to whom Paul was to preach. God ordained the places and the people to whom he should preach. Because he was God’s servant, Paul was like an ambassador. As a king or queen sends their ambassadors to where they will to do their business, so Paul, being an ambassador for Christ (he calls himself that), says: ‘I am one whom the Lord has entrusted with this gospel to preach, and I go to whom and to where God’s sent me.’ It is not always to where you want to go. When I first received the call to this pastorate here, over 40 years ago, there were two, if not three other causes that had showed an interest. One in particular I very much wanted to go to. But the Lord said concerning this people here: “Thou must go with this people.” ‘Not the one you want to go to, but where I will send you.’ Well, I say no more about that. Whether it was the Lord’s will, we must leave that in the Lord’s hand, except we could not have continued among you for so many years were it not the Lord’s help. The point is, dear friends, as I was saying just now about your providences: there is a must in them. And that means the Lord is in the matter. That means you must bow to him whatever it is: the family, the business, the Church or your personal life. What is the Lord’s will? The Lord’s will for Paul was that he should preach among the Gentiles.
Who were the Gentiles? There are two answers to that. They were the non-Jewish nations. The Jewish nation has a wonderful history, beginning at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was raised up for a wonderful purpose; a twofold purpose. One was to bring forth our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ in due season. In the fulness of the Father’s time He came forth, “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” That was a wonderful privilege, and it still is a wonderful privilege. We should be thankful to God that He raised up that nation for this very purpose. But also, the way the Lord dealt with that nation; it was a type of His dealings with the people of God in all ages. ‘But,’ you say, ‘what about the Gentiles?’ Well, for the most part, in the Old Testament the truth of God was confined to the Jewish nation. There were exceptions, of course, and Rahab was one, and Ruth was another. No doubt there were many other hidden ones whom He loved with the same love that He had for the Jewish nation. But, for the most part, the gospel was confined in that ceremonial way to the Jewish people. But, when Christ came, as we read of in Ephesians 2, He broke down that middle wall of partition. If we went to the Temple, we would have a wall which prevented the Gentiles from going where the Jews were allowed. The Jews could have nearer access. The Gentiles had to stay in the outer court. If they went into the inner court where they were not supposed to go, there was punishment of death. That was the problem when Paul took Trophimus into the Temple; they thought he had done that very thing and had gone where the Gentiles should not have gone. It was a very marked thing. But our Lord Jesus Christ has broken down that middle wall of partition. It is out of every “every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” that He calls His own.
But, friends, there was an even more important barrier than the one I have just mentioned. Between the Holy God that dwelt between the cherubims in that Shekinah glory and all the worshippers, Gentile or Jew, there was a veil that no one dare pass through. No one, that is, except Aaron or the High Priest once a year, and that “not without blood.” That veil reminds us of the difference; the wall of difference between a holy God and a poor sinner. And, just as Aaron dare not go within that veil without blood, so dear friends, you and I must not. I hope we dare not approach God without blood. Not our own, not the blood of a bull, or a beast or a bird as it was in Old Testament times. But rather, with the blood of Christ. “The blood of Christ, how sweet it sounds, To cleanse and heal the sinner’s wounds! The streams thereof are rich and free; And why, my soul, why not for thee?”
It was shed for sinners, and that is what a saint is brought to believe. The blood of Christ has brought sinners near to God. It has paid the price of sin. It has dealt with its very root. It has undone what the devil did in that sinner when he fell in Adam and has brought him nigh. What a mercy it is! “Made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
So, Paul was to preach to the Gentiles; these people that had been scattered, as it were. He was to preach Christ to them. You can read in the Acts of the Apostles how great a success God gave to his ministry, in Ephesus, Thessalonica, Antioch, in Corinth especially, and other places. He was a man greatly blessed. But he could only go where the Lord sent him, unto whom the Lord sent him and when the Lord sent him. It was all in the Lord’s hands.
The other meaning of the word ‘Gentile’ is a very derogatory meaning. The Jews had such distaste for the Gentiles that they equated the word ‘Gentile’ with the word ‘dog.’ That is why the Lord Jesus Christ put that woman of Syrophenicia to the test when He said: “It is not meet to take the children’s bread,” – there He was speaking of the Jewish nation – “and to cast it to dogs” – to the Gentiles. But this woman penetrated right through our Lord’s mind, as it were, to the heart of the matter. She knew what He meant: “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” And it was to such that Paul was sent in a spiritual sense, leaving aside all nationalities. The dogs: those unworthy ones, those feelingly defiled ones, those who cannot call themselves a saint and certainly cannot make themselves a saint. Yet, they want a crumb! You sang of it in your hymn just now [743]. You are waiting for something from the very gospel table. You dare not, as it were, sit at the table and be noticed by others; you do not feel worthy of that. ‘Oh, if I could just be under the table and just gather a crumb!’ For, it is the same quality as the banquet on the table.
“A crumb of mercy, Lord, I crave,
Unworthy to be fed
With dainties such as angels have,
Or with the children’s bread.”
C. Cole
Friends, this is what Paul was sent to do: to declare such truths to the Gentiles. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles.”
Then we come to the fullest part of the text, the part we feel most inadequate in dealing with: “The unsearchable riches of Christ.” First of all, ‘unsearchable’ means that no man by natural wisdom can find it out. This is the fault of modern science. God has given great wisdom to scientists, and we would be foolish not to acknowledge that. But the point is that God is not in all their thoughts. At least, of very few scientists can it be said that God is in their thoughts. Everything is explained according to their own natural mind and, as it were, God is banished from every part of what they are describing or studying. So, they come to their own conclusions. The Word of God speaks about the conclusions they come to: “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” Evolution is a strong delusion, and the strength of it is, if it were really true, that there is no Creator, there is no God, the Judge of all, there is no eternity, there is no hell and there is no heaven. We are just here by chance, and when our life is done, that is the end. That is evolution for you. What does the Word of God say about it? “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Evolution denies, not only the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ and even God Himself, but the necessity of His birth, His life and His death. ‘The cross and the tomb mean nothing; there is no need for it,’ they would say ‘Why are you so concerned about such things?’ Well, a saint is very concerned about it. He or she knows they have a never-dying soul. They know there is an eternity. They know that “God is a consuming fire.” They know they need preparation for eternity. This is the prayer of a saint:
“Prepare me, gracious God,
To stand before Thy face;
Thy Spirit must the work perform,
For it is all of grace.”
J. Fawcett
We come back to the word ‘unsearchable.’ It also means, dear friends, that even among those who know a little of what Christ is and the loveliness of Him, even their knowledge is like going down to the seaside, say at Lyme Regis, and taking a little egg cup and filling it with water from the sea. You compare the water in that eggcup with what is left in the sea. What is in the egg cup is what God may have revealed to you. What you do not yet know of Christ is in all that sea that you cannot begin to put dimensions to. “The unsearchable riches of Christ.” And here is a mark: if you have ever known anything of it; if you have tasted a little of it, you will want to know more. You will. You will say: ‘Lord, I want to know more of this precious Christ, more of His Godhead, more of His equality with the Father and the Spirit. I want to know more of His holy humanity; more about that precious life He lived and more about that temple of the Holy Ghost in which the Holy Ghost dwelt without measure. I want to know more of His precious blood that He shed, why He shed it and for whom He shed it. I want to know more of the true meaning of that word He spoke on the cross: “It is finished.” I want to know why the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. I want to know that my unworthy name was taken by Him into the Holiest of all when He “ascended on high” “led captivity captive.”’ These are the things that those who know a little of Christ want to know more of. “The unsearchable riches of Christ.” These riches are infinitely better than anything this world could ever give you.
“Were I possessor of the earth,
And called the stars my own,
Without Thy graces and Thyself,
I were a wretch undone!”
Oh, friends, there is nothing to be compared with the knowledge of Christ! We are told it is “more precious than of gold that perisheth.” And so it is. A little true, saving knowledge by the Spirit of a precious Christ is more than this world can ever give you or ever will give you. “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,” He said. ‘This is what I give to my dear people: peace.’ “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.”
“The unsearchable riches of Christ.” Go to Philippians 4, and there you will find access to them. Philippians 4 verse 19 is a most wonderful word. “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” You dear parents here this morning, you do what you can for your children. You have to deal with them according to the means that you have. And, because of your love for them, you go to the extent of those means as well, because you love them. You do what you can for them. Well, look at this: God the Father; look at the resources He has stored up in His dear Son for all His dear people. “My God,” says this very man in our text, “shall supply all your need.” On what grounds? “According to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” That is the scale; shall we say it is the bank balance that a saint has; a sinner saved by grace. This resource never runs dry. It never empties. It is as full today as it was when the first sinner drew from it, and it will be the same to all eternity. A fulness that never, ever diminishes, even though millions of sinners have drawn from it since first it was opened for such.
But, the point is, have you and I drawn anything from it? “My God,” says Paul. ‘I know what He can do for a poor wretch; one who is “less than the least of all saints,” and the Chiefest among all sinners. I know what He can do.’ “Riches in glory.” Stored up where the devil cannot get them, where unbelief cannot deny them, where the world cannot take and even your wretched heart cannot defile them. “Hid with Christ in God.” “Riches in glory.” A perfect obedience, unsullied, unstained, unspotted, never wearing out and never corrupting. A full and complete atonement in the precious blood of Christ; justice completely satisfied with it. And a Person there, at the right hand of God. A real Man; a real Person. Yes, He is a Person in the Godhead, of course. But now that Person in the Godhead has taken into union with His divine Person this other nature. So, it is both God and Man that sits at the right hand of the Father this Sabbath morning. He is interceding for all who come to God by Him. And the vilest sinner out of hell who cannot call himself a saint but longs for salvation is welcome to the throne of grace.
“The vilest sinner out of hell,
Who lives to feel his need,
Is welcome to a Throne of Grace,
The Saviour’s blood to plead.”
The riches are in Christ Jesus. “The unsearchable riches of Christ.” And the occupation of heaven is, I say this reverently, to delve into those unsearchable riches. In the whole of eternity they will never be exhausted. Never. “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
One further thought. That word ‘preach,’ is a good word. I like it because it means there is a proclamation. It is a declaration. There is nothing uncertain about it. It is what God is saying to a coming sinner through a precious Christ: there is mercy for him. That is what it is saying. It is a proclamation. It is a declaration from the very throne of God concerning His dear Son: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” He said to those three favoured disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, “hear ye Him.” ‘Hear what He has to say.’ What has He to say to the coming sinner? “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” What has He to say to the poor, fearing, trembling sinner this Sabbath morning? “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee.”
“Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed;
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
K., 1787
What has He to say to that one upon whom He has laid a burden, as it were for Christ’s sake? Paul speaks twice in this chapter for this cause; for the cause of God and for truth. He was bearing this particular burden. And there are other burdens God’s dear people bear. What does He say to such? “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” If only, friends, you could delve into these riches and see what comfort and encouragement there is for God’s dear, coming people! “Unsearchable riches.” Things as yet not seen. Isaiah 42: “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them,” – that is sanctification – “and not forsake them.” In other words, you may be very anxious about your tomorrows, your next weeks and your next months as the Lord opens up His will for you in any way. It is unsearchable to you, but it is known to Him. “But He knoweth the way that I take:” says dear Job in the depths of his trouble, “when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” And the Lord says to dear Joshua: “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua had an unsearchable path before him; he did not know how he was going to cope. He had Jordan and Jericho and unseen troubles before him. Oh, dear friends, what more can He say to His coming people?
“What more can He say than to you he has said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?”
K., 1787
“Unto me,” says Paul. ‘I have proved what I am telling you. I have walked it out. I know it to be so. I would not be writing to you like this were it not so.’ “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” What a privilege Paul felt it to be! A solemn responsibility, yes, but what a privilege He felt it to be! That this man who hated the name of Jesus, hated the very people who bore that name should now proclaim the sweetness and preciousness of that name! Oh, dear friends, what grace! What cannot grace do when once it is put forth? You know what is said at Thessalonica: “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” And when Paul went preaching, that is just what happened. He “turned the world upside down.”
In the eighteenth century, there were several revolutions in Europe. They were very violent revolutions as well, particularly in France. And the godly wondered what would happen in Britain, as it was also a very depraved nation and deserved God’s judgments. Well, God did send a revolution, but it was a different one. He sent the Evangelical Awakening. He sent men like George Whitfield, in particular. (He was actually the first trustee of the Chapel from which we seceded in 1804. His name is on the Trust Deed). But the point I am making is that George Whitfield came into this area and he preached law and gospel. He preached sin and salvation. Friends, it turned the world upside down around here. It was the means of many being called by grace. Society changed, not just here but throughout the nation. It was said that it was that which saved this nation from a violent revolution. Now, we live in very uncertain times at the moment. We tremble at what might happen: the unrest, the disorder and the bitterness on every side. I know what would change it: this gospel. If God were pleased to raise up godly men with the same power and turn the lives of sinners upside down as He did in the days of the Evangelical Awakening, we would see a remarkable change in this nation. Oh, may it yet be so! Let us not give up praying that it will be so.
But has it turned your life upside down? That is the point. You can look at history. You can talk about Paul and you can debate the doctrines of grace. But that is not enough. Has it turned your life upside down? Can it be said of you: “You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”? Have you been “made nigh by the blood of Christ.”? Has the middle wall of partition been broken down between you and a holy God? That is the point. Lay it to heart this Sabbath morning; how does it stand with you? If you had been listening to Paul preach this blessed gospel, would it have meant anything to you? There were those to whom it meant nothing. It was a “savour of death unto death.” But there were those to whom it was a “savour of life unto life.” And that is what I do so long to know in my poor way here; that it might be a “savour of life unto life” in those that believe. But also may it not leave without excuse those to whom it is a “savour of death unto death.” The Word of God does say “they are without excuse.” There will be no excuses in the Day of Judgment, just remember that. No excuses whatsoever!
“How stands the case, my soul, with thee?
For heaven are thy credentials clear?
Is Jesus’ blood thy only plea?
Is He thy great Forerunner there?”
May God add His blessing.
J. Kent Amen.
